Skillstreaming the Elementary School Child: New Strategies and Perspectives for Teaching Prosocial Skills

This is a very nice guide for teaching a large variety of social skills to elementary children. There is a bunch of information that I didn't really need, and I wish more of the book was dedicated to the "lessons", but overall it was very useful. The lessons are mainly short descriptions of each skill with ideas for instructing the skill. This cannot be used as a full lesson planner, but as a guide for developing classes/group sessions. Sold seperately, there are cards that go along with this guide, as well as a guide for younger children, both of which I would strongly recommend.

Skillstreaming is a wonderful resource for any mental health professional who works with young children. The book addresses practical problems that professionals encounter in schools, clinics, and residential settings. I especially like the authors' emphasis on behaviorally-based intervention. I also like the fact that the authors encourage professionals to assess and monitor their interventions to determine their effectiveness. In short, I highly recommend this book as a resource for child psychologists, school psychologists, counselors, teachers, and others who work with children.

I think this book, an update of the original which I have also read, gives clear and precise instructions for creating prosocial behavior groups and interventions. The principles behind the model espoused in this book are sound and effective. In the short time I have used this model in my groups, I have seen some slight but noticeable behavior changes in the students.